Posted: Sep 29, 2004 - 10:38:19 PDT
By Joel Gallob Of The News-Times
Some 20-plus local residents joined this week in an exercise in identifying the problems of medical care delivery in today's Oregon. They confronted issues ranging from the old and familiar - how to provide health care to all - to the very newest - how to ensure good health in a culture where self-induced diseases are the chief threat.
Dr. Rick Wopat, a family physician with Samaritan Health Systems in Lebanon, led the forum at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital Monday night. The forum, one of ten around Oregon, was organized by the Oregon Health Policy Commission, a body formed by the legislature to research health care problems and make recommendations to the governor and legislature.
The possible solutions discussed, in Newport and elsewhere, Dr. Wopat said, will help form the recommendations the commission will make. "Some will be short term recommendations, some will be intermediate-term, and some will be long term," he said. "Not everything we come up with will lead to legislation next session." But some of it, he said, will.
The exercise focused on four areas: improving access to health care, controlling costs, increasing the health care quality, and improving health generally.
Article from News Times
Posted by gruwell at October 4, 2004 2:32 PM | TrackBack